Metaphors

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Sylvia Plath's poem Metaphors

45 Comments

As an artist I often put a secret thing in my paintings. You know, such as a ladybug or tiny item that no one knows but me. When someone catches my secret I am pleased. So is how I read Metaphors. Note that when Sylvia left home for England she was a carefree vivacious young girl. When she came back from England she was a changed and depressed person who bordered on mental disease. If you are interested in her secret it is revealed in the order of the lines.

This poem is definitely about how unhappy Plath was in the latter stages of
her pregnancy. Using terms like ‘elephant’ (think of Hemingway in Hills
Like White Elephants), ‘ponderous house’ and ‘fat purse’, Plath is
describing just how she feels. These metaphors, coupled with the ‘bag of
green apples’, which not only bloat you, but turn your stomach sour paint a
picture of a woman who feels dreadful. There is so much more to be
discovered in these nine simple lines, but suffice it to say that Plath
felt she had no control over her life at this point (‘there’s no getting
off’) – and any woman who has been pregnant can understand that there comes
a point when you feel that you are merely a vessel for this ‘red fruit’.
Plath was a desperately unhappy woman, and this is only too obvious in this
poem.

slyvia plath has beautifully written the poem to describe
the pain and suffering of women during pregnancy. However, I feel that she has exaggerated the feelings which may create a kind of fear among newly married brides and other women expecting child.

I disagree on the last line. A mother’s job is not over when the pregnancy is. She still has to raise the child. “Boarded the train, there’s no getting off” means she knows that this horrible state she’s in is only the beginning. She still has to raise the child that has made her feel so awful. She is not looking forward to raising the child.

In her brief nine-line poem, “Metaphors,” Sylvia Plath uses rich imagery to dissect her role as a pregnant woman. Written in 1959, Plath was carrying Frieda, her first child with British poet Ted Hughes when she wrote this poem. As the name of the poem suggests, Plath uses a series of metaphors to describe the desperate state she feels she is in during her pregnancy. The way in which Plath frames the poem is very unique. She purposefully writes the poem in nine lines, with nine syllables in each line, bringing to mind the nine months during which she will carry the child in her womb. As is characteristic of her poetry, Plath writes in the first person to make a personal, human appeal by using the “I” voice.
Plath uses handily crafted metaphors to convey her feelings about pregnancy. She describes herself as “an elephant” in the respect that she is bloated and uncomfortably large, a “ponderous house” in the sense that she is the clumsy structure which bears the child, and a “melon” in that she is the tough external facade of something ripening inside of her. Extending the metaphor into next line, “O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers,” Plath uses the rhetorical device of synecdoche, that is, the use of a part as referring to the whole, to describe her child. The use of this device is remarkable in this case because she chooses to use the parts of each whole which are the most valuable; the ripened fruit of the melon, the ivory of the elephant’s tusks, and the fine timbers with which the house was constructed. Plath here makes it clear that she believes the only salvageable good of her pregnancy is the offspring. Yet despite this “salvageable” aspect of the pregnancy, Plath feels like having to reduce herself to a disgusting, bloated vessel whose only worth is that by virtue of what it contains is degrading to her humanity. Plath in the seventh line describes herself as “a means,” as if she were simply a nine-month temporary incubator for the child. Once she embraces this imagery, reducing her role to a “means,” Plath fully adopts an attitude of self-loathing, an attitude whose seeds were planted when she used images like “a ponderous house” and a “melon strolling on two tendrils” to describe her pregnant self. Plath uses several more metaphors which speak of her ever-growing belly and increasingly uncomfortable lifestyle. She, in line six, describes herself as a “fat purse” holding valuable “money’s new-minted.” This image further highlights Plath’s attitude toward her pregnant self, that she is simply a receptacle whose worth exists only because of the “money new-minted” which it holds. She feels like she is disgustingly grotesque, and has relinquished her beauty, comfort, and humanity so that her child may enter into the world. Plath’s feelings of self-loathing are furthered by her feeling that she is trapped in her degraded state and that she can in no way personally effect a change that can restore her humanity, that is, that she “Boarded the train [and] there’s no getting off.” This final line of the poem deserves some extra thought, though, because while it, in one sense like the rest of the poem, it relates a general tone of self-loathing, it, at the same time, reminds the reader of Plath’s underlying humanity. The final line also acts, to some degree, as Plath’s acceptance of her temporary role as a “means” as something which all mothers much endure for their children, and a reminder that after the nine months burden is lifted, she will return to her full humanity. Even though the last line states that “there’s no getting off,” Plath reminds us painstakingly by the nine line stanza and the nine syllables in each line that she will “get off the train” once the nine months are through.

I agree with Ambrosia, but that is precisely what makes Plath so great – she embodies the perfect paradox, beautiful misery. If you ever catch yourself feeling too optimistic about the world, visit Ms. Plath. She’ll put things back in perspective. My favorite line is “O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers.” If you look at the previous lines, these are the objects of “worth” that melons, elephants, and houses carry. She doesn’t feel like a person of personal worth anymore. She feels that has become simply a vessel, whose only worth is carrying this child. I, personally have never carried a child (for obvious reasons), but my wife tells me that she often felt this way.

Well as a student currently studying in ub i think Plath is bitter and very sour,in this poem she does not show any sign of happiness its lyk for her pregnancy is a shameful thing but its only natural to us all

(1)”I’m a riddle in nine syllables”
means the period of pregnancy. for detailing,
nine syllables means 9 months which is the period of pregancy.
(2) “An elephant, a ponderous house”
‘elephant’ is speaker’s body because she has baby.
‘ponderous house’ has two meanings.
– ponderous is same as elephant.
– house is baby’s house. In other words, Women’s womb
(3)A melon strolling on two tendrils.
A melon strolling means speaker’s swollen belly.
two tendrils means speaker’s thin two legs.
so this sentense shows fat of belly as compared with two legs

A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

to me this is an irritable poem. She’s irritated by the stupid metaphors and the pregnancy and almost recites them dismissively. The nine syllables per line (one for each month) in nine lines truck along without resolution. As a male this captures the grumpiness of women in their third trimester when pregnancy is at its most annoying. To me its not unhappy its more pissed off.

As an English Philology graduate, NO NO and again NO to those who think this is a happy poem Plath wrote in a joyful manner. If you’ve ever read Sylvia Plath’s biography or any other works of her, you would know what kind of a psychological state she was in throughout her life. I don’t want to go into details but i just wanna say that this poem actuall IS a gloomy poem; she is not thrilled because she’s pregnant, she does not think pregnancy is miraculously wonderful and she does not ‘humurously’ hint that there won’t be sex for a while by saying she’s boarded a train where there’s no getting off! Before ridiculing this sensational and sad poem to wider lengths, i suggest everyone who are interested in this to read Plath’s biography (even online), go out and buy one of her books consisting of her collected poems and then analyse this fragile yet mournful poem once more. You can get help to understand profoundly by getting help from world wide literature sites online or other literary works dedicated to Plath’s work from libraries or bookstores. In literature, there is never a simple definition to any symbol or metaphor in a poem or novel. You can’t imagine what kind of depth and how many meanings a simple word can have in itself.

Many of these metaphors are euphimisms for pregnancy–for example, a cow in calf is a very old reference to a pregnant cow. Similarly, eating a bag of green apples causes one to bloat–that is,get big-bellied–therefore another metaphor for pregnancy. Yeast makes bread rise–another euphemism. (Compare to “a loaf in the oven,” yet another but not appearing in this poem.)

The line “O red fruit, ivory,fine timbers!” looks back to the melon, the elephant, and the house.

Don’t complicate things too much! And if you’ve ever been pregnant, once that train leaves the station it is (or used to be) in fact too late–no matter how one feels about the pregnancy.

for the sake of god to students:)
The poem Metaphors is written by Sylvia Plath on 20th March 1959. The poem is about her pregnancy as accepted by many critics, and the whole poem is full of metaphors, the same as the title of the poem. Firstly on the first line “The nine syllables” represent the nine months of pregnancy. Each line having exactly nine syllables and containing nine lines is in reference to her length of being pregnant. Each line has metaphorical meanings and symbols. Approximately all words are use of metaphors in the poem the words which are use of metaphors: riddle, elephant, ponderous horse, melon, two tendrils, red fruit, fine timbers, this loaf, money, fat purse, means, stage, a cow in calf, a bag of green apples, the train. That manner shows us Sylvia Plath intended to write a poem full of metaphors as we understand from the title and a sense of riddle, joy which surrounds the whole poem. Elephant and ponderous horse indicates that she feels herself as moving so slowly with huge stomach. “Red fruit, ivory and fine timbers.” creates the feeling of how beautiful and special either she is feeling towards herself and the baby. Melons on the third line represents the fetus that is strolling on two tendrils, furthermore tendrils reminds the reader ovaries of a woman. Also on the fourth line “The big loaf with yeasty rising” resembles her stomach’s growing. On the fifth line “Money is new-minted on that fat purse” here money represents the weights that she has got due to pregnancy and also the fetus which made her appearance fatter. According to some critics the sentence on the ninth line; ‘Boarded the train there’s no getting off.’ shows the regret of being pregnant of her but there is not any concrete sign that this sentence shows the regret and also it can not be proved that the poem has a negative, gloomy atmosphere.
The poem has nine lines and rhyme meter is set up on nine syllables moreover the rhyme scheme is aaaabcdad. The persona is first person and the vocabulary is not complex. There are very few adjectives because the writer uses metaphors for defining the nouns. Also the sentences are simple.

This poem is talking about Plath’s Pregnancy. The nine syllables represent the nine months of pregnancy. I think when she talks about the elephant she’s talking about how huge she feels. The melon strolling on two tendrils is a description of Plath’s belly starting to show. In the fourth line “O red fruit, ivory,fine timbers!” I think she describing how special her child is. In the next line she mentions a big loaf with yeasty rising which refers to her belly getting bigger. I took the line describing how she ate a bag a green apples two different ways. First I thought it was talking about her new eating habits because now she’s eating for two so instead of just eating one apple she ate the whole bag. Secondly I looked at it like the bag of apples was the actual baby itself, being heavy and lumpy. You could look at the last line 2 different ways also. The train that she has boarded and cant get off of is the pregnancy. There’s no turning back and you could look at the last three words in a humurous way “no getting off” could mean that there’s no sex for a while.

You have very good taste in poetry, but I’m afraid Plath won’t be giving you any pointers since she’s been dead for decades… she’s a very famous poet – Gwyneth Paltrow played her in a movie a couple years ago; you can find most of her stuff online for free viewing, and I also recommend you check out “The Bell Jar.” It’s a novel and most students have it assigned at some point in their academic careers. Best wishes!

I can see why she killed herself. She was very morbid and had alot of self doubt. Women who believe they are fat when carring a child should be psychologically probed. She didn’t like herself and when her husband left her it made her feelings about herself even more concrete. For me the poem was a window to who Sylvia Plath really was and anyone that knew her personally should have gotten her some help maybe she would still be alive.

I was looking at other analyses of this and found an interpretation of line eight (“I’ve eaten a bag of green apples”) which I hadn’t seen posted yet and wondered if it might help someone else the way it helped me. It may be an allusion to the fruit of the Garden of Eden, adding Plath’s wry humor to pregnancy. Eating the “green apples” was like having sex: it was pleasurable but has long-term consequences.

the elephant part makes it seem as if she didn’t want the baby as well as the ponderous house. This reminds me of Hemmingway’s Hills Like White Elephants, as it speaks of a sumwhat unwanted pregnancy and boarding a train- very similar infact.

this poem isn’t regretful. she’s realizing what it is to be pregnant. lemme break it down:

“I’m a riddle in nine syllables.”
First letter of the poem is the 9th letter of the alphabet. 9 lines, each 9 syllables, reflecting 9 months of gestation.

“An elephant, a ponderous house,”
The elephant represents her enlarged state, and a ponderous house is also an image of her big, clumsy body, but more importantly, its a metaphor for her unborn childs “house”. her womb is the dwelling place of this baby and in it, it is provided all life-sustaining necessities.

“A melon strolling on two tendrils.”
An image of her big, round belly resting on her thin legs.

“O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!”
these three images describe the child, in relation to the previous descriptions of herself.
red fruit = the ripe fruit of her “melon”
ivory = the precious, valuable ivory from this “elephant”
fine timbers = the wood that’s part of this “house”. also, timbers are made from existing trees, just as this baby is made from Sylvia.

“This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.”
Another reference to her belly that’s rising as it grows. her stomach is the harder, exposed crust while her baby is the unexposed, warm, soft interior.

“Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.”
The comparison of money being minted is a metaphor for her baby as an imprint of herself. she is stamping out a copy of herself, and minting a new person. this coin is “new-minted” because it is unique–different from all othe existing coins. money is also an appropriate comparison because it is valuable, just as this baby is to her.

“I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.”
a means = shes the way this baby will be brought about
a stage = a stage of this baby’s life, step in development, a landing place and a platform for this baby
a cow in calf = as a calf is normally in a cow, she is the cow in her calf. her baby is a copy of herself, and she is invested in this baby.

“I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,”
a reference to her cravings as a pregnant woman

“boarded the train, there’s no getting off.”
the train ride is a metaphor for her journey of pregnancy and her new plath in life. Now that she is pregnant, she knows she will forever be bound to this child. it will always be her baby. there’s no exiting this ride.

now, this REALLY isnt a difficult poem to analyze. id say its pretty straightforward. i wa sso surprised to read such crappy interpretations and analysis. what are schools teaching kids these days…

Quote:
“a melon strolling on 2 tendrills????? 0o0o0o0o0o0 a carrage with a baby ok i get it…….i think”

The melon represents Sylvia herself (think large stomach), and the tendrils are her legs. Two tendrils, and two legs. Tendrils grasp on to objects for support, much like the tendril of a grape plant. And strolling just means she is walking.

another way of analyzing this poem is not to think of it as a pregnancy at all but instead note the line “i’ve eaten a bag of green apples” which could mean she has eaten a bag of unripe, sour apples which, as any country girl can tell you, will give you horrible gas. So in reviewing the poem the yeast rising and other bloated imagery are of the bloated gassy feeling from overindulging on unripe apples. Therefore the last line of the poem “boarded the train there’s no getting off” is the remorse she is feeling after eating the apples of this impending gas.

I think it’s a good poem………..
there are nine line’s in the poem she describe’s how she love’s her pregnancy(nine letters) how long dose it take for a baby too come out (nine months) by the way the first letter she use’es is the nineth letter in the alaphbets(I ) am a riddle>>>>>>>>>> and also all the sentince has nine syllables………………. what claver lady…………………..

I love this poem. It is humorous and good for the soul! We need mor laughter in this sick ridden society. I love her uses of words and phrases. She brilliantly takes an unpleasant wonderful miracle to make one realize that some miracles have pain and suffering but the fruit you receive from it is the gift of life.

When I was a student of English back in college, I felt about this poem much the same as does the other student of English in this thread. I saw Sylvia Plath as a depressive with issues of abandonment and self doubt brought on by a life of disappointment, and therefore dismissed this poem as a product of her neuroses and nothing more. I, too, thought that her view of pregnancy was unrealistically negative, and that of herself overly damning. However, now that I’m just five weeks from my own due date, I see that I was wrong and am sad to have spent so many years ignoring her incredible talent for truth. At this point, though I’m honored to have the experience, I really do feel like my purpose has been chiseled down to “vessel”. My balance has been thrown by the jelly-filled beach ball that is my center, and the movements of my child make me feel as though my intestines have been invaded by some sort of alien parasite. I understand what it is to have a belly full of green apples in the literal sense as well as in the broad sensation of doomed over-indulgence, and the only thought keeping me from screaming panic is the thought that next month it’ll happen whether I ask it to or not, so there’s no point in worrying. There’s no getting off the train. Perhaps Plath’s depression allowed her to do what no other poet had yet done: describe pregnancy, both real and metaphorical, in all its frustrating, uncomfortable, desperate, terrifying truth.

I disagree with the student of English (3/27/05) that the poem is a negative comment on pregnancy. I see it as a humorous way of looking at a normal, albeit at times inconveniently bulky, human condition. This is my favorite of all of Plath’s poems, short and sweet, and to any woman who has ever been there, a wry and real expression of how it feels to be pregnant.

I’m pregnant too… well sort of. Anyway, this poem confused me at first then after looking closly and breacking it down i realized that this poem is metaphoricle!!! Wow what a trip… but honestly after reading it slower and breacking up the lines and syllables I found this poem quite entertaining.

There are nine lines in the poem, nine syllables in each line, and nine months in a pregnancy. The speaker is pregnant. The speakers is also not happy about being pregnant. She feel like her cargo is more important that she is. While she is “… an elephant, a… house, a melon… a fat purse… a means…”, the baby is the ivory from the elephant, the valuable timber in the house, and the fruit inside the melon. The baby is the money in the fat purse that is the speaker. There is no more joy in being sick from pregnancy than from being sick by stupidly eating a bag of green apples, according to the speaker. The speaker not only regrets becoming pregnant, but also views it as a stupid choice for which she is being punished.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Sylvia Plath better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.